New Chelsea shirt sums-up era of commercialism

…and here’s next season’s version, which has just been revealed by ADIDAS:

Come on, you can’t just change the colours around a little bit, mess around with the collar and expect that to be a justification for charging fans another £50.

This isn’t a dig at Chelsea, because almost every club in the Premier League now behaves like this - Chelsea are just the first club to release their new shirt, and so are in the firing line.

Everybody knows, that regardless of what design a manufacturer comes up with, the vast majority of fans will buy the new shirt as a reflex - and that’s without mentioning the many, many fathers who will be frog-marched into club stores with their credit cards.

It’s a license to print money, and if manufacturers are going to continue to brazenly take advantage of fan loyalty, then surely it’s time for some intervention on shirt prices.

It’s not a new debate, but since clubs now insist on producing three new strips per season, it’s probably one which is worth revisiting.